City safety & data profile

TacomaWA

Tacoma, WA is a 223K-resident city in Pierce County with a median household income of $85,884.

Pierce County, Washington. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Tacoma, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Tacoma has a population larger than 98% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $479,600, and 4 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

223K
Population (place)
Top 2%
By size
$85,884
Median income (place)
$479,600
Median home (place)
12.4%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Tacoma

Tacoma posts a median household income higher than 56% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 4 hospitals serve the Tacoma area.

Top 44%
by median income, US cities
4
hospitals in & near Tacoma

Where Tacoma income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$85,884 Top 44% higher than 56% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Tacoma $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in WA

Population among 109 WA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Seattle is the largest WA city on this list; Sammamish leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in WA

Median household income among the same 109-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Sammamish posts the highest place-level median income in WA; Seattle is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Tacoma, WA beyond the headline numbers

Tacoma sits inside Pierce County, Washington, at roughly 47.25°N, -122.44°W. Population 222,906, $85,884 median household income. Median home value $479,600, median rent $1,676. Poverty rate 12.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

4 hospitals in/around Tacoma, 2.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.

Poverty in Tacoma, WA stands at 12.4%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.

The median home in Tacoma costs around 5.6 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

15.7% of Tacoma workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 18.7% in Tacoma, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

3.9% of Tacoma workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Tacoma from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
222,906
Tacoma · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$85,884
-4% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$479,600
+16% vs avg
Median Age (place)
37.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Pierce County): Tacoma's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
930K+16%
Median Income
$99,564+68%
Median Home Value
$526,600+119%
Poverty Rate
8.8%-29%
Unemployment
4.9%-53%

Economics

Economics indicators for Tacoma, WA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,676/mo
Poverty Rate
12.4%
Unemployment 5.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 34.5%
Work From Home 15.7%
Public Transit 3.9%

Population

White 58.2%
African American 9.8%
Asian 9.6%
Two or More Ethnicities 8.6%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
38.1%
Obesity
37.3%
High Blood Pressure
32.2%
Physical Inactivity
19.8%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.7%
Binge Drinking
16.8%
Frequent Physical Distress
13.9%
Current Smoking
11.9%
Current Asthma
11.1%
Diabetes
10.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 62.8%
Annual Checkup 70.2%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
9.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
5.2%
Stroke
3%

Hospitals 4 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
1
0
Average Rating
2.5/5
Total Hospitals
4
With ER
2
ST JOSEPH MEDICAL CENTER
TACOMA · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆
TACOMA GENERAL ALLENMORE HOSPITAL
TACOMA · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Tacoma?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Tacoma right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet WA-TACOMA · Tacoma

Tacoma: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Tacoma; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Washington state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Tacoma, WA?
Tacoma, WA has a population of 222,906 people, located in Pierce County, Washington.
What is the median household income in Tacoma?
The median household income in Tacoma, WA is $85,884 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 12.4%.
What is the median home value in Tacoma?
The median home value in Tacoma, WA is $479,600. Median rent is $1,676/month.
What are the top health concerns in Tacoma?
The top health indicators in Tacoma include Short Sleep Duration (38.1%), Obesity (37.3%), High Blood Pressure (32.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Tacoma?
Tacoma has 4 hospitals with an average rating of 2.5/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Tacoma?
The median age in Tacoma, WA is 37.2 years. 34.5% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Tacoma, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WA (12.4% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WA ($85,884 here).

Compare Tacoma with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Tacoma's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Tacoma area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Tacoma against Washington peers on any ranking lens. Explore Washington

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Pierce County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.